The Wet 75 is a typical sight on the r/MechanicalKeyboards subreddit, a neighborhood that nerds out in regards to the thock of a keyboard and, naturally, enjoyable keycaps. It looks like each week or so, somebody posts about their new buy from WobKey, and each time, the consensus revolves round how good of a finances possibility it’s. That is as a result of, for below $150, the Wet 75 has each characteristic you may need in a mechanical keyboard at this time. There are just a few unusual design selections, however I lastly bought my arms on one, and I’m impressed by this keyboard.
The Wet 75 is offered in three flavors: Lite, Commonplace, and Professional. The Lite retails for $129 and consists of HMX Violet linear switches, a polypropylene plate, and a 3,500-mAh battery. The Professional—the mannequin I examined—consists of Kailh Cocoa linear switches, an FR4 plate, RGB lighting, and two batteries totaling 7,000 mAh for $159. The Commonplace is in between and prices $139.
Poppy, Crisp, and Easy
{Photograph}: Henri Robbins
Typing on the Wet 75 feels and sounds incredible. It has that poppy, crisp typing sound you see in movies on-line, and typing feels each bit as energetic and pleasing. I assume the “Rainy 75” identify comes from the typing sound, since its softer and rounded sound profile appears like rain falling.
The linear “Cocoa” switches are manufactured by Kailh for the Wet 75. These switches have a comparatively gentle working pressure of 45 grams, which is akin to a Cherry MX Purple, and use a polyoxymethylene stem (POM) and Nylon housing, which helps to create a marbly typing sound and a clean typing really feel. The switches are responsive, popping again up rapidly after being pressed, and have hardly any scratch, even when pressed down slowly. The stems of those switches have little wobble backward and forward or entrance to again, making keypresses really feel sturdy.
The stabilizers on this keyboard come pre-lubed and, regardless of being plate-mounted as an alternative of printed-circuit-board–mounted, they really feel incredible. Whereas I might discuss how clean and quiet they’re, it’s simpler to say that I didn’t even discover they had been there when typing. These stabilizers are tuned completely and don’t require any work out of the field. That stated, I think about that, like most plate-mounted stabilizers, they are going to require a reapplication of lube after some time.
{Photograph}: Henri Robbins
The gasket-mount system holding the keyboard collectively is actually spectacular. It feels bouncy and delicate with out seeming too muted or mushy. The dampening from the gaskets is constant throughout the entire keys, solely turning into considerably stiffer across the edges.
Finicky Performance
This keyboard has some quirks that, whereas not enormous, may be annoying. Typically, when urgent Alt+Tab on this keyboard, or every other key mixtures involving the Tab key, I’ve to press the mixture twice for it to work. I’ve resolved these oddities by turning the keyboard on and off.
Usually, one among my favourite options on a mechanical keyboard is help for QMK and VIA. QMK, quick for Quantum Mechanical Keyboard, is an open supply firmware that permits for nearly limitless customization of a keyboard’s format. VIA is a system for customizing particular QMK-compatible keyboards utilizing an in-browser interface. These permit for easy and environment friendly customization of mechanical keyboards, which means a QMK-enabled keyboard may have long-term help with out reliance on proprietary software program which will cease being up to date after just a few years.
